The Hitchhikers Guide to Game Reviews

[Baku]:I'm gonna try my hand at game reviews and see what comes of it and because my pc is running on radioactive hamster power I play most new games on a low resolution, you know, like real gamers
[COma]:Sipping coffee, smoking, listening to floyd, playing (old and new) so if it sucks you don't have to.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Now that I am Undead, I have come to this great land, the birthplace of Lord Gwyn, to seek my very own sun!"

—Solaire of Astora

So ... Dark Souls.

I think this is one of those games you either love it or not. It's From Software latest creation and the spiritual successor of Demon's Souls which came out only on the PS3. I got my hands on it and I was hooked. I couldn't stop playing it, I needed to know what was in every corner of the game and hunt every achievement I could, though interrupted by a HDD failure.What you should know from the beginning is that, this is From Software's first PC game and they only ported it due to fan request, so if that's your platform of choice be prepared for some headaches. For starters the game is barely playable with a keyboard and mouse, Steam even recommends you use a controller when you're buying the game. Then, of course, there are frame limitations and whatnot which come with console versions of any game. But someone came to our rescue and you can download a utility called DSFix that will solve most of your issues). I can say I had a really pleasurable experience playing with a PS3 controller and also not a very bad one using the keyboard and mouse (after getting accustomed to the control scheme). Also bare in mind that this was done as a fanservice and they also threw in the Artorias of The Abyss DLC into it as a bonus.

Now that we got the technicalities out of the way ... let's go to the game mechanics and style. It kept most of what made Demon's Souls great, but I feel they twitched the difficulty down a bit. The game keeps its predecessor's undead/dead mechanic but with a few twists to accustom the story. Dark Souls's story develops in a brand new setting with absolutely no connection to Demon's Souls Boletaria. Instead Lordran welcomes you with its arms opened, so to say, although those arms are trying to kill you in any sadistic manner possible. Unlike the hub-based gameplay of its predecessor, Dark Souls offers players a open world map to explore. With time you will find a lot of shortcuts through the place that will greatly help you later on or at least make travels a lot easier. It also looks awesome. You can see places you have been before or are yet to come from far away and the details thrown into all of it make every corner of the map great. You get a lot of "Ohhhh so that's where I was" moments, and ever time is at least a good relief that you don't have to go a long way back. But the terrain can come as a advantage or disadvantage making many fights agains a certain enemy vary in difficulty depending on the surroundings. For instance there is this Capra Demon Boss that is designed as a challenge to the player to prepare him for the upcoming areas. He is a big goat-like demon dual-wielding humongous sword in a very tight corridor. You can either try to dodge him and chop away at his health bar or use the terrain to your advantage. But if you were to fight him in a more opened space it shouldn't prove as difficult. Another lacking element is the music. Well, not actually lacking, tha game has music but only in some areas and is very subtle but enough to please you. On the other hand most of your journey you will only hear your character walking, mechanisms turning and the sound of your weapon slashing through the air, bitting from a enemies flesh or bouncing of armour or walls.The story is presented to you very scarce. Enough to please the casual guy who isn't necessarily following the plot and there is also a lot more to discover for the one who wants an explanation for everything. You can get some extra information from the item description in your inventory and there is also a lot of space for speculation. You can find a lot of awesome lore videos on youtube that might give you a idea, usually backed up with evidence of why a certain corpse (which might seem just as something to loot) is in a certain spot. I've seen a lot of really interesting stuff and it greatly improved my already heightened appreciation of this game. Of course, you can make your own speculations. Along the way, you will also find NPC's and they will have you do something out for them or figure something up since they are stuck. Through repeated encounters you can develop and finish their storyline and make them find their ... peace or fail at some point and see them go nuts in most cases. Also, the backstories and motivation of the different bosses impending your progress can and will make you feel like a dick for killing them most of the time.

"Oh, hello there. I will stay behind, to gaze at the sun.

The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father!

If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"

Solaire of Astora

The player seeks out as a undead chosen to go to the land of gods, Lordran. A bit redundant, but it's journey starts in a prison, and after recovering his equipment he sets out on his journey just to end up at the Firelink Shrine where he is presented with his first quest, ringing the Bells of Awakening. And that's it, the start of Dark Souls. Another different approach to the RPG genre is that there is no quest log or anything to hold your hand through the game. The only thing that can limit your thirst of exploration are the monsters and bosses inhabiting the world, and of course a few doors that can only be opened when passing a certain point in the story. Although the concept of a open-world is a bit different, I haven't had this feeling of treating every new enemy like a potential mini-boss since Gothic 1. Of course that was a while ago and many things changed, but it's a feeling that just can't be put in words. Every monster has it's own fighting style and you have to pay attention to their every move. Almost just like a real-life fight. Being a game it's still reduced to patterns, but before catching up on those you can have a lot of fun during your first 2-3 or more playthroughts (the new game pluses go a long way). The control scheme is a bit tricky at the beginning but you can get easily accustomed to it and it's very effective. For the record, I will remind you that I played most of the game with a PS3 controller and I will refer to the controls as mapped on a gamepad. The triggers are assigned to whatever the character has in it's respective hand and the shoulder buttons to use the alternate attacks of said items. As a funny note the game let's you do, almost, whatever you want. You can go nuts duel-wielding shields or humongous weapons like the Dragon Tooth (yes, it's actually a huge fang) even if you lack the required stats. Of course they won't work and they also added clunky move animations when you try attacking with something that's over your limits (nice touch From developers). Now for normal-sane builds, if you get a weapon that's a over your stats you can wield it with both hands and it's requirements will lower a bit. Of course it's move-set will change a bit. Here's another interesting thing about Dark Souls. LIke its predecessor, every weapon has a different move-set. So, the numbers attached to a weapons damage are not everything you should look at. Most of the weapons scale with a stat or more in a way and that adds to the damage output based on it. Also you should take a newly acquired weapon and have a few swings to see its move-set and if it satisfies your playing style. I made the same mistake in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls of farming until I had enough strength to wield the biggest weapon I had (and had the biggest damage output) ... "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". ... just to find out it took my character quite a while even to lift the damn thing, yet alone attack with it. Since I said I farmed, I should explain the leveling up system a bit. You get a certain amount of souls from every enemy you kill and then you get to use them at bonfires to level up your character. Every level (called soul-level) requires a (increasing) amount of souls and lets you put one stat point into a attribute like strength, dexterity, faith, pyromancy and so on. You need to rest at bonfires to do this though. Resting will respawn al killed enemies except bosses and some tougher ones and will recharge your estus flasks, the healing potions of the game. And they are also used for other reasons, like changing your equipped spells, autosaving and setting itself as the respawn point in case of horrible death. Bonfires can also do more neat stuff, for example through upgrades, you can repair your items here, instead of visiting a certain blacksmith and some other uses revealed as you progress through the story. Also, scattered the world you find humanity which, among other stuff, can be used to enkindle the bonfires and make them give you more estus flasks.

You should decide early on in the game what you want to do with your character since playing with a mix of this and that is not recommended. Also there are some attributes that are utterly useless and some limits which if you go beyond don't make much of a difference anymore. You might say that one point per level sounds a bit ... limiting, but the maximum level is around 700, it varies a bit on your class. i won't talk about these since I don't want to spoil anything and I feel that messing up your first character is a must in this game :). While for dexterity, strength, vitality, protection it's straight forward what they do ... you might wonder what is faith or pyromancy. As any RPG, Dark Souls offers the possibilty to play as a spell-caster. But even here you can choose what to do. Since there are more branches of magic. There is pyromancy, the art of wielding magic based on fire and to cast you need to have equipped a pyromancer's glove. There are also Miracles and Sorceries which require the usage of a catalyst or a talisman. Every type of magic has a corespondent attribute that limits the number of spells the player can have equipped. Some may say that the due to the unusual control scheme and brutality of the game it's learning curve is skyrocketing. When you play the intro/tutorial area you can see that they gave it to us on a silver platter. You get to fight a enemy with no weapon, then one with a weapon, then a bow, a shilded one, a combination of two types and so on (this wasn't a accurate flow of events description ... but I haven't played the beginning in a while).Going back to the weapons ... When you find weapon with a move-set you like and which scales nicely you can keep most of the game ... or until the next one that makes you jaw-drop, you can spend souls on upgrading it. And with special ore that drops from enemies you can give it special types of elemental damage. And yes, enemies are weak against one kind of them, especially bosses. I would also recommend trying every weapon you find with or without the required stats because it can lead to very hilarious moments. Another funny but also intense moment is a death. It can be cinematic while you're getting backstabbed but it's also a sorta panic moment. Let me put that in proper language. Every time you die, you leave a corpse behind with all your souls and you become hollow. Now here things get interesting. Since all the enemies respawn in the area it may be hard to get back to your corpse without dying. And if you die again, you just lost your harvested souls. Just think that you're almost at the next bonfire, passed a annoying battle with more then two types of enemies (yeah, you pulled too many), carrying around 80k souls (and a level up is around 12k) and you die ... to make things worse ... you die in while falling off the cliff or going into water that is too deep since you didn't notice the limit mid bossfight. And then there is hollowing that makes the player unable to enkindle bonfires and not able to see summon signs or get invaded (both from online players or special NPC's). Oh, it also makes your character look like a undead. To revert this one must consume a humanity, and visit a bonfire. Humanity can also be consumed to have a increased drop rate and curse resistance (curses are nasty, trust me). It also remains behind with the body and souls in case of death.

Since I mentioned being invaded, the game kept it's predecessors social component. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well ... just don't think about tweets. Any player can leave behind messages indicating hidden walls, enemies, a nice view or just be trolling and leave random "jump here" traps, so it's up to the player to decide what to do with the information he received. Besides these there are summon signs. On can leave a summon sign behind and be called in another player's world to help him. The connection lasts until one dies or the boss of the area is killed. There are many special ways to be introduced into another person's world or be summoned to a defend areas of other intruding players. These are tied to the covenants in the game. These act like guilds with special entry requirements given by a covenant leader and something to do after joining that increases your level and you get special rewards the higher you go. Once you find a new one you can leave the former one but might lose some bonus items or spells and anger them. But with some souls you can buy forgiveness, so you can go and try them all. The multiplayer really gives the game some BIG extra brownie points. The things you have to do, and go through to get them all are awesome and add a lot of game time to a playthrough depending on how thorough are you. Besides lending a hand, you can also invade other players and attack them. Now, the sad part is, that on the PC version there are hackers ... and besides the obvious frustration sometimes a encounter with one of them can leave your saves corrupted. But, this is just something I heard of (a lot) but didn't experience and DSFix can be set up to back up your saves.As mentioned, the Prepare to die edition, also includes the Artorias of The Abyss DLC. These is a whole new story-arc containing multiple areas, new enemies, bosses, items and a magic type. So, it's big. Console users can also get it for a little sum of money and it was a good surprise for them since the game was out for a while and everyone was at their 10+ run. The DLC content starts as a story line that can be accessed somewhere mid-game (actually anytime, if you get there alive) and at some point will let yourself go into the new world. And because .... Dark Souls ... the first thing you encounter is a boss. I have to say there some nice new monster types and bosses around there. Also a alternate storyline that can change a certain cinematic back into the main game. So ... Dark Souls is a combination of a great gameplay and game design, interesting storytelling style, breath-taking visuals (although poorly optimised), intense combat, steep but fair learning curve, really awesome lore and storyline, subtle music and sadly a poor PC port, but thanks to the community it's catching ground. From Software already announced Dark Souls 2 and I just hope they won't go too mainstream with it and dumb it down.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Since I'm saving up for a major upgrade on ye Old PC, I didn't get anything new lately. Also my to finish list is crowded with many lenghty RPG's I just lack the time to play properly at this very moment., so I went for a relaxing drive in Forza 4. While failing miserably trying to drift glamorous like a swan I remembered that Forza Horizon is coming out soon. After a quick search on the availability of the game at local stores and it's prices, I went on and downloaded the DEMO to see a bit of the game.

If you followed the game, you should probably know that it's taking a different route than the Forza Motorsport series. Instead of racing on normal real-life tracks, you have a open-world Test Drive Unlimited kinda experience revolving around a music festival.

As a DEMO, is actually pretty good since it gives you a insight in the new stuff introduced into the game, like off-road racing some world events and a special event. You can participate in 4 races, 2 being at behind the wheel of a Dodge Viper mainly point A to B, a off-road race with a Mitsubishi Lancer and a special event called Mustang vs. Mustang which is a race between a Mustang Boss and a Mustang airplane.

It's also nice that they opened a bit of map for exploring, where you can crash some discount gates and whoosh through some speed radars. I wont go much on other aspects of the game (graphics, sound, gameplay since those are reserved for the full-game review) but I will say that yes, they are good and the driving simulation with assists off is well-made enough (like the previous forzas actually) that it kept me a in front of my TV a while just racing and swirling through traffic listening to the radio stations.

As a closing note, I can't wait to get my hands on the game. It might be the new Test Drive Unlimited for me (the first one kept me playing for years). It might not have the same exotic feeling like Honolulu or Ibiza ... but Colorado can also throw some cool scenery at you. And I think the car selection will be awesome and extensive, especially after a zillion DLC's (it already has a car-pack on the xbox live store).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

What do you expect when you see a name like Ron Gilbert attached to a game ? Tons of laughs and Monkey Island-like puzzles. But what if the game is a hack'n'slash and not an adventure game ? Well ... humor can be added anywhere and puzzles can have their place in such a game...

And so we got Deathspank. The protagonist, which bares the same name, is not just a hero... he is The Hero and needs to find The Artifact. Throw in some missing orphans and an antagonist and that kinda sums up the story of the game.

While the story might seem a bit thin, it's packed with humor and hilarious references (you will also find out what retired World of Warcraft orcs do to pass time or other heroes struggling to finish their last quest). The dialog, item-naming, descriptions and quest log are filled with text that will make you chuckle at least once every two minutes. Quests are categorized in "Things I have to do" (main quests) and "Unimportant things I have to do" (secondaries). However there isn't much variety to them; you mainly have to kill X monsters of Y sort, collect items or clear out another cave for the same guy. Although they might get repetitive, they add some play time to this funny, short game. I spent around 10 hours with the game (mainly because I didn't stock up on potions and kept dying in a dungeon) and did everything I could and reached level 20 which is the maximum.

The game takes place in a fantasy setting, where your worst enemies are unicorns and on your way you get to kill weird crossbreeds like KangaMoo's (mama cow met papa kangaroo or vice versa). The landscape and the characters are 3D but the trees, houses, grass look like 2D cardboard cutouts. This I really enjoyed. It was a refreshing new gimmick that I hadn't seen before.

Being a hack'n'slash you would expect a lot of items generated and difficult choices like "should I lose 20% healing per kill for 5 % extra gold and + 21 agility ?" well... you don't have to worry about those. Items in your inventory have a coloured background if they are better than your current selection and if you really want to, you can choose to auto-equip the best items. I also didn't notice any legendary/special items. Armour suits just come as you progress through the story, some as quest rewards, some from chests and you will have the full set of each one. And the weapons ... well I couldn't be bothered, I usually just put on the one with the biggest damage. The combat is as you would expect, you click ... Deathspank strikes. You can switch anytime between two selections of two weapons. So you could say you can carry four pain inducing devices at once. You will have to alternate between them to get the best results in a fight, some weapons having some bonuses (elemental damage), or just using the bow from a distance to weaken enemies. While you kill enemies Deathspank's justice meter will fill up. When it's full you can use a weapon's special attack (if that weapon has one). Also, a bit later in the game you come across various runes that tell you how to combine weapons to do more damage. I wish I could tell you more about the runes but I never used them. One thing I didn't like was the fact that when switching between the two weapon sets their 3d model doesn't change until you attack at least once. I saw the game on the xbox later on, and noticed that you don't have to switch between to weapon sets, each one the four weapons was linked to a lettered button. And since the game game out originally on the XBLA it's understandable.

The problem with the game is not that it's not complex, but given the fact that the death penalty is putting you a few feet back, and taking some of your gold (which you need only in one quest at the beginning or to buy potions), I just didn't care about dying. So, in the later half of the game, I was running around, killing what I could and dying and coming back and so on. I could've bought invisibility potions but again, didn't need them. Also potions heal you instantly but you can also eat pizza or fries while running. These will slowly regenerate your life until you are hit. Still ... in most cases I just ran around the monsters while eating all the junkfood.

Although it has its flaws and almost no replay value, Deathspank delivers more than enough humor for its price.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

After dozens of grey-shooters, crawling through corridor after corridor, spending hundreds of hours going through thick woods looking for that mysterious cave in RPG's, driving lighting fast avoiding traffic and winning races, finding all hidden packages in sandbox games or just killing Diablo for the dozenth time ... you might need a game to unwrinkle your forehead (actually ... you might need to close you PC/console and go outside ... without any handheld).

A long time I played this game on Kongregate called "Upgrade everything". It was a cool game where you could upgrade everything including the menu/graphics/sounds and so on. I found it very catchy and though of a doing a clone at some point. Well the guys from Going Loud Studios beat me to it .. and came up with a XBLIG game called DLC Quest.

You are the good guy and have to save the princess from the Bad Guy (that's his name). The game is a 2d-platformer where you have to get coins. But your progress is coming to a stop pretty soon since you have to get the DLC required to go further. And then the other ... and the other. Of course this a witty satire at today gaming industry and you pay the DLC's with the coins you collect. THe DLC wary from horse armor (wink-wink Bethesda) to the ability to go left, sound and so on. I can't say more without spoiling much of the game. The sad part is that the game is way too short. I went through it while my girlfriend took a shower. But it's a lot of fun in a small package. The dialogs and sign-posts are great. It also bursts with references from Final Fantasy to Mass Effect.

Being the game that it is I cannot say much more about it, only that it was the best 1 euro something I spent in a while and it will make your day. Oh yeah, it has 10 awardments (achievements). Go catch'em all.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

This might be the first time I review a big title short time from release date. I didn't know much of the Mass Effect franchise till a friend showed me the first game while I was having a "I don't know what to play" crisis. I liked it... but for one reason or another I didn't finish it. A while later My Shepard defeated Saren. Then Mass Effect 2 popped his head out. Also a very good game vastly improved by all the DLC's it received. Since then My Shepard silently occupied his kb in My Documents folder waiting. For those new to the franchise, Bioware gave players the option to import theyr character from one game to another, applying their custom face and all the decisions they made in previous games. Theese influence the story of the later game in one way or another.

So, I was looking forward to My Shepards new adventure to save the galaxy. As soon as my paycheck landed, Origin was already downloading Mass Effect 3. After the game finished

installing I loaded up on energy drinks and snacks and double-clicked the icon. For those who don't know the games where action-RPG's with a heavy emphassis on dialog and interaction with NPC's, especially with those that accompany Shepard in his adventures. So I was surprised to see that I am presented with a setting so the game is more RPG or ... not. Also you can choose not to have any involvement in the dialog, the answers beeing chosen for you. At first I looked with anger at theese options, but then I realised they were a good thing for new players who new players who don't have their own My Shepard with it's baggage of choices or for players who don't play many RPG's. This might be a good move on Bioware's behalf since they mentioned at some point they might expand the Mass Effect universe beyond Shepard's story. (two iOS games appeared on the store). But, this might also be coming from EA, but I won't start a debate on the subject right now. The sad part came after I imported My Shepard and I hot a prety neat "error" message for the appearance. I tried to reload the game but it was still there. So, my only option was to take the default Shepard or try to recreate my work of art if years ago. I went for the second. Anyway, ti clarify, after scooping out on the Internet I found out that this only happens to those who imported in Mass Effect 2 their character from the first game. Those who made a new one in 2 won't be dealing with this problem. But Bioware said they are working on this problem.

The galaxy is, as we left it, on the verge of being attacked by the Reapers. Shepard is grounded back on good old Earth and Udina is the humans representitive on the Council (even if you selected Anderson in the first game). The game starts with Earth being invaded and Shepard leaves to rally up the other races to defend and take back Earth. The game is presented with the same modifies Unreal 3 engine. Although the game looks amazing and some of the effects are awesome, it starts showing it's age, especially the textures some looking a bit low-res.

Shepard retakes command of the Normandy wearing Alliance colors again. He will have friendly faces (unrelated: dunno if it's just me but Joker seems to caught on some weight). Im his quest he will meet most of the major characters from the previous games, also those from the Mass Effect 2 DLC's if you had them. He will presented with the option to help sone of them in a way or another. Also between missions you can come to te Citadel to listen for rumors of Artifacts from ithers planets or stuff to do (more on the matter in a bit). While on the Citadel you can meet some of your crewmembers and said major characters and talk to them, get deeper knowledge of what are they up to.

About the before mentioned artifacts. They represent the exploring part of te game. While in the previous ones whe had the Mako or te planet-drilling now Shepard searches for long forgotten Artifacs. But this is not as exciting as it sounds. While walking around the Citadel you can eavesdrop on peoples conversations and pick up locations or sightings of them ol'Artifacts or other stuff they might need like better equipment for the Hospital. You can travel like before from the Galaxy Map. But now each sistem has it "alertness" meter. When the meter is full Reapers will cone to take a bite out of the Normandy (not literary but that's what it looks like). When you enter a system you can can the area around The Normady. If there is anything near it will be revealed. It can be a Artifact, war assets or fuel used for travel. With each scan the alertness meter fills up a bit. If it's not full you can leave the sistem and it will reset. If it's filled it will reset after you complete after a quest. Besides the main questline, you also have side quests. Some of them though are just battling Cerberus forces on the multiplayer maps (of course you have a objective like uploading some data or something). I mentioned that you can also gain war assets. There are used to determine the ending of the game. Sort of.

War assets determine the readiness of the galaxy against the Reapers. Those found on planets are usually hround units or fleets. Helping characters can also contribute to the readiness level. They say that to achiev the best ending you need to have around 5000 readiness. Also some of the decisions you made in the previous games and playing multiplayer can affect the readiness level. Low readiness level can get Shepard killed before the actual ending of the game. Hope this is not considered as a spoiler. It is possible to fail at getting at 5000 without taking certain decisions in all games. Some said that it cannot be reached without multiplayer. I did play a few rounds but I am aware of some stuff I missed on the first playthrough so I'm not sure what to say about that statement. But if it's true my only question is: what if I want to play the games in a few years or my children would like to play this piece of gaming history ... What then ? What if there will be no-one playing ?

Anyway ...The multiplayer is strong. There are classes each containig different characters with their own race, sex and set of abilities. They each level up individually when used and you unlock new weapons but unlike the singleplayer you can only carry two (I didn't play too much so there is a slight probability that at some point you might be able to carry more). The maps are relatively small and you have to survive 10 waves. Each wave throws enemies at you and sometimes you have to complete certain objectives. If you die you respawn. At the last wave you have to board the shuttle and escape. If failing here, you won't respawn. Between matches you can buy packs of weapons and abilitiea with game coins which are earned in game or bought with real cash.

Now, a while after the game has been released there have been numerous complaints about it's ending. I will only say that I find it very good and unexpected. Without spoiling I can't say any more just that you should watch ine of those youtube videos that try to explain it. They might not be official Bioware sayings but they did tweet about them hinting they might be true. Also they announced a free DLC coming this summer that wi expand on the ending, and that will answer all questions.

While the writing of the game and it's presentation is top notch, the gameplay can get repetitive. Every time you stay behind a chest-high-something and pop up your head to pew-pew at the other guys when they pop their head up or start walking around towards the next thing they can take a nap behind. You can customise the armor that Shepard is wearing by buying different parts from the Citadel or dinding them in missions. The same applies to weapons ... you will come across numerous upgrades and new weapons while you progress. Also between missions Shepard can pursue the heart of one of it's crewmates and help them "relief stress" later on. There are many options, and Bioware also included one of the same sex. Like we got used to ... When in missions they will interact with each and on the Normandy they don't always just stay in the same room all the time. You might walk on them laying on the floor piss-drunk or something.

With the game I also got the From Ashes DLC. I really don't like it when games have payed DLC's on release ... since it's something tht was already done and could be included with the game. There are rumors (didn't look too much into the matter) that From Ashes is already into the game anyway, you just unlock it. Anyway the DLC gives you a short mission that will leave you with a new crew member. And sincerely he is one of the best new characters. Not just because of his origin but also from the conversations between him and My Shepard and his personality.

Theese being said I really enjoyed the game and the series and I'm very curious what will become of the franchise.